Excellent video!, Gracias!, An excellent memory stimulator, whilst watching a video, I often practice tying these knots, makes those memory cells work overtime!
Easily one of the most comprehensive, yet super concise videos about a whole lot of bowline variants! Awesome video - really great work on the presentation and explanations! My favorite is also the scott's lock bowline, aside from the bowline on a bight, which we use here in Germany for tying in to our harness while climbing. The scott's lock bowline is so easy to learn and to do and just gives so much extra security to the knot. I appreciate the demonstration about the yosemite finish as well - looks like a magic trick when you first see it, until you realize that the loops are just working their way around each other in order to change the knots internal structure. Thanks so much! It's a great reference as well!
I have been teaching people to tie knots and use rope (mostly in the maritime field) since 1975. In that time, I have seen only two other knot tying sites which are as useful and simple to follow as yours. Those are Grog on Knots, and JD from Tying it all Together. I put you in the same league as JD and I HOPE that you are a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, because based on this bowline video you deserve to be. (If you apply, just don't hold your breath waiting for them to get back to you, as I suspect they're a bit of a clannish bunch. i applied for membership about 8 or 9 years back, and sent them what I thought MIGHT be a new knot or a new way of tying an old one, and in three subsequent email attempts to ask them if they either got my post or had considered me, I've heard nothing. But my main point is that you have a real gift for teaching what many people consider to be a difficult subject. Keep it up!
Ben, I’ve rewatched almost all the knot videos you’ve produced and they’re awesome. Just a couple of days ago I thought, “Why (k)not tie a Scott’s Locked into the Portuguese and French Bowlines?” I tie those knots and then just do the “over, under, over” through the nipping loop to lock it all in. And the loops still easily slide/adjust. It’s awesome - and some of our favorites combined!
That's a really good idea actually. I've never seen that. One of the things I don't like about the Portuguese bowline, especially in its "splayed" form when tied around two anchors, is that the sliding mechanism that allows the loops to resize may cause the nipping loop to open up, and then the working end could slip out. If locked the way you describe, plus a safety knot around the standing end, it would become a lot more reliable. The other approach I've seen is a Yosemite style finish, which would also allow for a safety knot on the standing end.
Would you consider the splayed variant of the Portuguese bowline to be less secure than the traditional method? With the splayed version, if the right loop were to be adjusted to be as large as possible, the left loop would disappear and the knot would fall apart. It doesn't look like that would happen with the traditional method.
with the snap, slipknot wte, tieing method of bowline, you can choose if you want the loose end inside or outside the loop by simply going through the last loop towards or away from you.
In sailing classes we learned to never have the end of the rope inside the loop, to prevent rubbing pushing the end out of the knot... idk, seems right when attaching the bowline to an object, right?
I just started learning knots a couple days ago. I’ve watched a number of your videos to learn. I had a thought… what if you combine the Eskimo knot with the Scott’s locked bowline?
I like the snap/marlingspike/slipknot method of tying bowline because then I don't have to think how it's done. That turn and pull is natural enough to come from the spine, then just pulling the end through. It also makes tidier looking bowline knots for me and they feel better. Purely subjective on that. What I've been wondering for a while is why it's pronounced like bowling, when the first thought would be a string of bow, say a bow line. Haven't figured that one out.
One version you missed is the bowline on a bight rethreaded. With the method you showed, it is difficult to tie in on a harness (technically you can make the collar loop huge and step through it) and impossible to tie into a fixed loop. You can tie it into your harnes by making a normal bowline around your rope loops with a large tail, then follow back through the harness, through the nipping loop and back out towards the load strand. Very secure, very easy to untie after large falls. In the incredible unlikely possiblility that cyclic loading undoes the tail, you are left with a basic bowline with a huge tail, so it is kind of redundant in thay way. Its very easy to inspect, basically there should be two strands everywhere except for the collar. Upon untie-ing it completely removes any knots from the rope, meaning you can safely pull it through an anchor. In my opinion it beats the figure 8 in climbing applications, and is my go-to for tying in, fixing a rope or hauling loads.
I've read that the Water Bowline, (shown around 18:40), is still used in modern ropes by some lobstermen, to secure lobster pots to their buoys. That second "nip" helps prevent tail creep, from the repeated tugs-and-releases that naturally occur as the waves and winds affect the buoy. The second nip does most of the work, plus it grabs the tail snugly at each tug! The result is that the tail feels little-if-any pull from the bowline knot proper, and so the water bowline is very unlikely to come undone in these situations, even left underwater for days, and in slippery modern rope. A side benefit is that the bowline itself doesn't grow ever-tighter, since it ALSO doesn't feel the repeated tugs. BTW - There is an alternate way to create a Water Bowline: simply tie a loose OVERHAND knot ahead of time, (in the part of the rope that's going to form the main loop), and then just tie a normal bowline above it. Later, that overhand knot can be reversed into a half-hitch, and re-positioned anywhere along the loop, to encircle the tail. Try it! :-)
If I understand correctly, there is a danger with the Splayed variant of the Portuguese Bowline: If you let one of the loops unload and slip through, so that the other loop opens up, then the whole knot unravels catastrophically. The first, non-splayed variant of the Portuguese Bowline doesn't appear to have this failure mode.
The Cossack bowline is obtained by pulling a loop from the Kalmyk knot or vice versa. The trick is that Kalmytsky gets untied instantly. It is not possible to perform the same trick with an Eskimo bowline, creating a return loop in it.
The Cossack knot is the unslipped version of the Kalmyk Loop (ref: "Marine Knots" by Lev Skryagin, a Russian knot book, a bit like the Russian counterpart of Ashley's Book of Knots; also found that way in Geoffrey Budworth's and Nic Compton's Books) and it is also called Eskimo Bowline; this is the one you called Eskimo Bowline. The other one (you called Cossack knot) is a variant that I couldn't find in any of my knot books (and I have quite a few). Where did you get that distinction from?
I think that the Russian books call the Eskimo and Cossak differently. But in a lot of the Western literature, and the discussion forums such as iktg, the Eskimo bowline is tied with the tail ending on the inside of the fixed loop (but can still be pulled sideways to make it stick to the outside), while the Cossak loop is tied with the tail ending on the outside of the fixed loop. The relationship between the two is basically like the relationship between a standard vs cowboy bowline.... the rabbit goes the opposite way around the tree. And if you accept this terminology, the Kalmyk loop is a slipped Eskimo bowline.
I think the so-called "Cowboy/Dutch" bowline, (10:50), might actually have been used by cowboys, to create a quick "honda" loop, in a running bowline, but I doubt that the Dutch navy actually used this knot, back in the day. MY theory is that British sailors called it the "Dutch Bowline" as a way to express their disdain for the Dutch navy's nautical skills. I suspect it was kind of a "Dutch Joke," intended to emphasize to sailors that the knot shouldn't be tied like this. IMHO, of course. 🙂
I prefer the triple bowline as a rescue knot with a different size third loop. Two equal-sized for the legs and a larger one for the torso. I have used this knot in a rescue of four people from 50-degree water. Excellent on one-handed. Thank you for Scott's Locked Bowline; I've been teaching it for years and this is the first video on it I've seen.
Never use the Bowline on a Bight if the 2 ends are going to be loaded in different directions. See the Alpine Butterfly, can be tied on a bight, and takes loads however.
@@txtoolcrib Tie Eskimo bowline with a return stitch for easy untie. Try to untie it. Do the same with the Cossack knot. And you will see that the Cossack knot with a return loop turns into a Kalmyk knot, but the Eskimo does not.
01:50 this is NOT a "lefthand-bowline". Lefthand-bowlne means that the bitter end is outside the loop, and not as you said "I tie it with my lefthand". 😂😂😂 Btw: The "lefthand-bowline" is also well known as "Dutch-bowline" "Cowboy-bowline"
28:58 You showed an unnatural way to form a knot! This knot is tied without using fingers. Whole palm. This knot has long been used by sailors in the Soviet Union and now, thank God, in the post-Soviet space. You can easily find on Russian-language RUclips the correct way to form a knot. And further. The knot has one weakness. If you do not take it into account, the knot will be dangerous!!! Unfortunately, you didn’t talk about this. Perhaps you don't know this.
Nice! The pinch and twist one handed bowline!!!
Excellent video!, Gracias!, An excellent memory stimulator, whilst watching a video, I often practice tying these knots, makes those memory cells work overtime!
Easily one of the most comprehensive, yet super concise videos about a whole lot of bowline variants! Awesome video - really great work on the presentation and explanations!
My favorite is also the scott's lock bowline, aside from the bowline on a bight, which we use here in Germany for tying in to our harness while climbing. The scott's lock bowline is so easy to learn and to do and just gives so much extra security to the knot.
I appreciate the demonstration about the yosemite finish as well - looks like a magic trick when you first see it, until you realize that the loops are just working their way around each other in order to change the knots internal structure.
Thanks so much! It's a great reference as well!
I have been teaching people to tie knots and use rope (mostly in the maritime field) since 1975. In that time, I have seen only two other knot tying sites which are as useful and simple to follow as yours. Those are Grog on Knots, and JD from Tying it all Together. I put you in the same league as JD and I HOPE that you are a member of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, because based on this bowline video you deserve to be. (If you apply, just don't hold your breath waiting for them to get back to you, as I suspect they're a bit of a clannish bunch. i applied for membership about 8 or 9 years back, and sent them what I thought MIGHT be a new knot or a new way of tying an old one, and in three subsequent email attempts to ask them if they either got my post or had considered me, I've heard nothing. But my main point is that you have a real gift for teaching what many people consider to be a difficult subject. Keep it up!
Why Knot is a very good channel as well
Yay! So many videos claim the French and Portuguese are the same, or confuse them. Thanks for this fun vid. I added Kalmyk to my repertoire.
Appreciate your videos.
This is an outstanding video. Thank you!
0:00 Introduction
0:26 Standard Tie Method
1:56 Quick Tie Method
4:44 Snap Bowline
6:04 General Uses, Advantages and Disadvantages
8:28 Running Bowline
10:44 Cowboy/Dutch Bowline
11:50 Yosemite Bowline
13:21 Dangers of the Yosemite Bowline
15:36 Scott's Locked Bowline
17:12 Double Bowline
18:37 Water Bowline
20:49 Birmingham Bowline
23:05 Eskimo Bowline
24:55 Cossack Knot
26:55 Kalmyk Loop
28:58 Kalmyk Loop Quick Tie Method
30:01 Portuguese Bowline (Traditional)
31:50 Portuguese Bowline (Splayed)
33:10 French Bowline
35:07 Bowline On A Bight
36:35 Triple Bowline
38:11 Spanish Bowline
40:23 My Favorite Bowline Variations
I just wanted to say thx! I enjoy your tutorials, including this one! You do a good job. 🙂
Awesome video!! Thanks for putting this together!
Wow! The one hand method was a challenge but fairly easy. And I did one time eyes closed and was successful. Fantastic instructions!
Great VideoLesson! Thanks a lot for your efforts. My favorite is also the Scott‘s Locked version. 👍🏼👌🏼🖖🏼
Thank you
Very well done video, thanks for sharing your expertise!
Thanks for the great review sharing this knowledge very useful 👍
Didn't even know there were this many variations, thanks.
Ben, I’ve rewatched almost all the knot videos you’ve produced and they’re awesome.
Just a couple of days ago I thought, “Why (k)not tie a Scott’s Locked into the Portuguese and French Bowlines?” I tie those knots and then just do the “over, under, over” through the nipping loop to lock it all in. And the loops still easily slide/adjust.
It’s awesome - and some of our favorites combined!
That's a really good idea actually. I've never seen that. One of the things I don't like about the Portuguese bowline, especially in its "splayed" form when tied around two anchors, is that the sliding mechanism that allows the loops to resize may cause the nipping loop to open up, and then the working end could slip out. If locked the way you describe, plus a safety knot around the standing end, it would become a lot more reliable. The other approach I've seen is a Yosemite style finish, which would also allow for a safety knot on the standing end.
I love the bowline.
It's one of the very few knots I can actually remember and it's so versatile that I don't have to remember much else
It's so simple. Half the steps to tying your shoes
Great knots. Thanks for showing this 👍
I had never heard the rabbit analogy before. Just started getting into tree work, so that was a real help for me. Thanks for that.
That’s how I learned it in Scouts.
Would you consider the splayed variant of the Portuguese bowline to be less secure than the traditional method? With the splayed version, if the right loop were to be adjusted to be as large as possible, the left loop would disappear and the knot would fall apart. It doesn't look like that would happen with the traditional method.
Absolutely...my DAD showed me that..U.S. NAVY.
great video!
Thanks!
with the snap, slipknot wte, tieing method of bowline, you can choose if you want the loose end inside or outside the loop by simply going through the last loop towards or away from you.
Great knot content and well presented! You have a new subscriber.
In sailing classes we learned to never have the end of the rope inside the loop, to prevent rubbing pushing the end out of the knot... idk, seems right when attaching the bowline to an object, right?
Awesome 👍👍👍. Thank you for sharing.
Can you safely add a Scott's Locked type "tuck" to the Water Boline in some fashion to get the tail out of the loop?
I just started learning knots a couple days ago. I’ve watched a number of your videos to learn. I had a thought… what if you combine the Eskimo knot with the Scott’s locked bowline?
Do you prefer the parawrap type type over diamond brade
I like the snap/marlingspike/slipknot method of tying bowline because then I don't have to think how it's done. That turn and pull is natural enough to come from the spine, then just pulling the end through. It also makes tidier looking bowline knots for me and they feel better. Purely subjective on that.
What I've been wondering for a while is why it's pronounced like bowling, when the first thought would be a string of bow, say a bow line. Haven't figured that one out.
One version you missed is the bowline on a bight rethreaded. With the method you showed, it is difficult to tie in on a harness (technically you can make the collar loop huge and step through it) and impossible to tie into a fixed loop.
You can tie it into your harnes by making a normal bowline around your rope loops with a large tail, then follow back through the harness, through the nipping loop and back out towards the load strand. Very secure, very easy to untie after large falls. In the incredible unlikely possiblility that cyclic loading undoes the tail, you are left with a basic bowline with a huge tail, so it is kind of redundant in thay way. Its very easy to inspect, basically there should be two strands everywhere except for the collar. Upon untie-ing it completely removes any knots from the rope, meaning you can safely pull it through an anchor.
In my opinion it beats the figure 8 in climbing applications, and is my go-to for tying in, fixing a rope or hauling loads.
What do you call this knot though? I tried searching for bowline follow through and nothing shows up.
with my bowline the working end always hangs on the outside of the loop inside of inside is this a problem?
I've read that the Water Bowline, (shown around 18:40), is still used in modern ropes by some lobstermen, to secure lobster pots to their buoys. That second "nip" helps prevent tail creep, from the repeated tugs-and-releases that naturally occur as the waves and winds affect the buoy. The second nip does most of the work, plus it grabs the tail snugly at each tug! The result is that the tail feels little-if-any pull from the bowline knot proper, and so the water bowline is very unlikely to come undone in these situations, even left underwater for days, and in slippery modern rope. A side benefit is that the bowline itself doesn't grow ever-tighter, since it ALSO doesn't feel the repeated tugs.
BTW - There is an alternate way to create a Water Bowline: simply tie a loose OVERHAND knot ahead of time, (in the part of the rope that's going to form the main loop), and then just tie a normal bowline above it. Later, that overhand knot can be reversed into a half-hitch, and re-positioned anywhere along the loop, to encircle the tail. Try it! :-)
Whats the advantage of bowline vs surgeons or perfection loop?
Easy to untie, retains more of the original rope strength.
If I understand correctly, there is a danger with the Splayed variant of the Portuguese Bowline: If you let one of the loops unload and slip through, so that the other loop opens up, then the whole knot unravels catastrophically.
The first, non-splayed variant of the Portuguese Bowline doesn't appear to have this failure mode.
The Cossack bowline is obtained by pulling a loop from the Kalmyk knot or vice versa. The trick is that Kalmytsky gets untied instantly. It is not possible to perform the same trick with an Eskimo bowline, creating a return loop in it.
I.always knew the Scott's as a locked bowline
I'm fairly good with knots but every time I try the bowling on a bite it becomes a slipknot and not a fixed Loop can't figure out what I'm doing wrong
Some people pronounce it bow-lin and some bow-lain , which one is it?
The Cossack knot is the unslipped version of the Kalmyk Loop (ref: "Marine Knots" by Lev Skryagin, a Russian knot book, a bit like the Russian counterpart of Ashley's Book of Knots; also found that way in Geoffrey Budworth's and Nic Compton's Books) and it is also called Eskimo Bowline; this is the one you called Eskimo Bowline. The other one (you called Cossack knot) is a variant that I couldn't find in any of my knot books (and I have quite a few). Where did you get that distinction from?
I think that the Russian books call the Eskimo and Cossak differently. But in a lot of the Western literature, and the discussion forums such as iktg, the Eskimo bowline is tied with the tail ending on the inside of the fixed loop (but can still be pulled sideways to make it stick to the outside), while the Cossak loop is tied with the tail ending on the outside of the fixed loop. The relationship between the two is basically like the relationship between a standard vs cowboy bowline.... the rabbit goes the opposite way around the tree. And if you accept this terminology, the Kalmyk loop is a slipped Eskimo bowline.
Top!
i like Scott Safier's version 15:36
Me: I'm not sure I'm up for 40 minutes on just the bowline.
Me 40 minutes later: Ok, one more watch.
I think the so-called "Cowboy/Dutch" bowline, (10:50), might actually have been used by cowboys, to create a quick "honda" loop, in a running bowline, but I doubt that the Dutch navy actually used this knot, back in the day. MY theory is that British sailors called it the "Dutch Bowline" as a way to express their disdain for the Dutch navy's nautical skills. I suspect it was kind of a "Dutch Joke," intended to emphasize to sailors that the knot shouldn't be tied like this. IMHO, of course. 🙂
End Bound Single Bowline (EBSB)
I prefer the triple bowline as a rescue knot with a different size third loop. Two equal-sized for the legs and a larger one for the torso. I have used this knot in a rescue of four people from 50-degree water. Excellent on one-handed. Thank you for Scott's Locked Bowline; I've been teaching it for years and this is the first video on it I've seen.
Never use the Bowline on a Bight if the 2 ends are going to be loaded in different directions. See the Alpine Butterfly, can be tied on a bight, and takes loads however.
Do you know the Texas Bowline?
You are mistaken Kalmyk knot - this is not a variant of the Eskimo bowline, but a Cossack knot!
I assure you I am not.
@@txtoolcrib Tie Eskimo bowline with a return stitch for easy untie. Try to untie it. Do the same with the Cossack knot. And you will see that the Cossack knot with a return loop turns into a Kalmyk knot, but the Eskimo does not.
Казачий узел завязан неправильно.
half the action is out iof frame. 😞
01:50 this is NOT a "lefthand-bowline". Lefthand-bowlne means that the bitter end is outside the loop, and not as you said "I tie it with my lefthand". 😂😂😂
Btw:
The "lefthand-bowline" is also well known as
"Dutch-bowline"
"Cowboy-bowline"
Left Handed Bowline is simply the mirror image of the traditional Bowline. The Cowboy/Dutch Bowline is not the Left Handed Bowline.
Only in your bubble. 😂😂😂
28:58 You showed an unnatural way to form a knot! This knot is tied without using fingers. Whole palm. This knot has long been used by sailors in the Soviet Union and now, thank God, in the post-Soviet space. You can easily find on Russian-language RUclips the correct way to form a knot. And further. The knot has one weakness. If you do not take it into account, the knot will be dangerous!!! Unfortunately, you didn’t talk about this. Perhaps you don't know this.
The way you're saying it throws me off. I've always heard it said "bow line."
I actually say it both ways. Purist seem to get angry whenever you say bow line.
Inferior demonstration
Nope
@@Western_Hemlock yup
You need to say why. Otherwise you're just a troll.